Weather Blog: Warmer winds and tracking thunderstorms

Thank you for stopping by the Weather Watch 12 blog! A shift in winds will finally bring a quick dose of summer to all of southeast Wisconsin. The catch...you need to wait one more day. In today's blog we discuss warming temperatures and also look ahead to the threat of strong storms.

With weather conditions changing quickly over the next couple of days I will be tweeting updates throughout the day. You can follow me on Twitter @jnelsonweatherand please feel free to tweet me your weather reports. Additional updates are posted on the Wisconsin Weather Updates Facebook page, check it out here.

The quick weather changes started Tuesday evening with thunderstorms producing small hail in our area. Missy Kwiatkowski from Franksville tweeted this photo of hail in Racine county. Additional hail reports were received from Sheboygan with early morning storms on Wednesday.

Looking ahead, an east to southeast wind will rule once again this afternoon. The general easterly flow will continue our cooler near the lake trend. Temperatures Wednesday afternoon will range from around 50 along the lake to the 70s well inland. Check out the future temps map valid at 4pm Wednesday. Temperatures in the 80s will be as close as Rockford!

Keep an umbrella on standby as a chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms will remain in the forecast with a warm front just to the south of our area. Any thunderstorms that develop will once again have the potential to produce small hail, heavy downpours and vivid lightning.

As warmer 70s to around 80 degree temperatures return on Thursday, the threat for stronger storms will emerge late in the day or at night. The Storm Prediction Center has much of the upper Midwest outlined in a slight risk for severe weather on Thursday or Thursday night. The main threats being hail and strong winds. There is a tornado threat, but that looks to be west of our viewing area.

Look for updates on Thursday's severe threat here in the blog as new information is received.